Oil Production Declining

[Conan71]

According to the article, oil production peaked in 2006 and will continue to decline by 7% per year.  Current production levels are 81mm bbls/day, experts are predicting that will slide to 39mm by 2030.

Current global reserve estimates say there's 42 years supply left, though one study suggests it's about 2/3 that.

Pretty chilling outlook, might not be a bad time to invest in corn.

Source

[TheArtist]

I think production and refining capacity will begin to increase keeping prices relatively low. The problem with this is that use of oil will continue to rise in the world and the relatively low price will not have the effect of pushing the use of alternative energy sources. And thus the world using even more oil at a fater rate will cause the supplies to run out even faster and more precipitously. Nothing we have to worry about now, but by around 2030, then things will get tricky.

I say we lay off the food for fuel thing a bit. not the best idea imo. Wind power can produce most of the worlds energy needs, supplemented by solar and coal as a backup.

[citizen72]

It is being proven that we have the ability to greatly reduce our dependence on oil. There are many private sources that are really coming along on say electrical locomotion. Batteries are getting smaller, lighter and more powerful.

[Townsend]

US seen overtaking Saudis as biggest oil producer

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-11-12/us-seen-exceeding-saudi-oil-production-by-2020

The United States will become the world's largest oil producer by around 2020, temporarily overtaking Saudi Arabia, as new exploration technologies help find more resources, the International Energy Agency forecast on Monday.

In its World Energy Outlook, the energy watchdog also predicted that greater oil and natural gas production — thanks partly to a boom in shale gas output — as well as more efficient use of energy will allow the U.S., which now imports some 20 percent of its energy needs, to become nearly self-sufficient around 2035.

That is "a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy-importing countries," the Paris-based IEA said in its report. "Energy developments in the United States are profound and their effect will be felt well beyond North America — and the energy sector."

Rebounding U.S. oil and gas production is "steadily changing the role of North America in global energy trade," the IEA said.

For example, oil exports out of the Mideast will increasingly go to Asia as the U.S. becomes more self-sufficient. That will increase the global focus on the security of strategic routes that bring Middle East oil to Asian markets. Tensions between Iran and Western powers have raised concerns that oil exports from the Persian Gulf could be blocked in a potential conflict over Tehran's alleged plan to develop nuclear weapons.

The IEA added that global trends in the energy markets will be influenced by some countries' retreat from nuclear power, the fast spread of wind and solar technologies and a rise in unconventional gas production.

The agency concluded that despite the rising use of low carbon energy sources, huge subsidies will keep fossil fuels "dominant in the global energy mix."

"Taking all new developments and policies into account, the world is still failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path," the IEA said.

Global energy needs are forecast to increase by a third by 2035, with 60 percent of the additional demand coming from China, India and the Middle East.

[Hoss]

US seen overtaking Saudis as biggest oil producer

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-11-12/us-seen-exceeding-saudi-oil-production-by-2020

Drill baby drill....wait, what?